1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a vehicle control apparatus for safety improvement while a vehicle is traveling.
2. Related Art
Nowadays, vehicles often provide functions aimed at operations other than driving. For instance, various kinds of vehicle-mounted equipment, such as a car navigation system and an audio device, is installed at the driver seat of a vehicle. In order to operate the vehicle-mounted equipment while traveling, the driver moves his or her line of sight from the travelling direction of the vehicle to the equipment. Therefore, in order to guarantee safety while the vehicle is traveling, technology is used which makes it impossible to perform an input operation to the navigation system and the like, while the vehicle is traveling. However, if it is completely impossible to carry out an input operation to the car navigation system and the like, the driver cannot change the destination or route while traveling, and hence convenience is impaired.
Therefore, technology has been developed which allows a driver to carry out input operations to vehicle-mounted equipment during travel, while ensuring safety during travel. For instance, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H8-184449 discloses technology which disables operation of the display of a car navigation apparatus by the driver while the vehicle is traveling. Specifically, a detector which detects whether or not the vehicle is traveling and a detection sensor which detects an operation by the driver and an operation by a passenger, are provided. If the vehicle is not traveling, the operation of the display is enabled, whereas if the vehicle is traveling, the operation by the driver is disabled, and the operation by the passenger is enabled.
Enabling the operation by a person other than the driver even during travel as described above makes it possible to reduce inconvenience while ensuring safety. However, if there is no passenger, for example, then it remains impossible to perform an input operation to the car navigation system, or the like, while the vehicle is traveling. Furthermore, since it is necessary to determine whether the operator is the driver or a fellow passenger, then a complex mechanism is required. Moreover, if the detector identifies the operator incorrectly, then safety cannot be ensured.